Quarantine

This article first appeared in City & Country, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on June 20, 2022 - June 26, 2022. i-TechValley will be a modern, gated-and-guarded industrial park with properties that have contemporary façades and features (Photo by AME Development) - A + A AME Development Sdn Bhd is looking to launch i-TechValley, a RM1.5 billion, 170-acre industrial park at Southern Industrial and Logistics Clusters (SiLC) in Johor, by end-June. According to director of property development division Cheryl Lim, this will be the company’s third industrial project in SiLC. Lim says the previous industrial schemes there were smaller projects and not gated and guarded. In contrast, i-TechValley will be a modern, gated-and-guarded industrial park with properties that have contemporary façades and features. “i-TechValley is envisioned to set a new benchmark for the industrial sector. Being in SiLC, we are surrounded by mature townships. The industrial park will … [Read more...] about AME Development to launch RM1.5 bil industrial park by end-June

This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on June 20, 2022 - June 26, 2022. - A + A DESPITE the reopening of borders since April 1, when Malaysia allowed quarantine-free travel for fully-vaccinated travellers into the country, it will be some time before the hotel industry regains a strong footing following the debilitating lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. In fact, it may well take another year at least before operators can operate at their full capacities at pre-pandemic levels, Malaysian Association of Hotel Owners (MAHO) president Tan Sri Teo Chiang Hong tells The Edge. “Average occupancy rates are an estimated 30% to 50% of pre-pandemic levels,” says Teo, who is owner and director of One World Hotel in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. He notes that resort destinations are seeing full occupancies while city hotels still face low occupancy. As at November 2020, a total of 204 tourism and hotel operators had shut down following the impact of the … [Read more...] about The State of the Nation: Hospitality industry struggling to cope despite borders reopening, brighter prospects

According to the Health DG, the average infectivity rate showed a 1.9% drop compared to the previous week. (Photo by Zahid Izzani Mohd Said/The Edge) - A + A KUALA LUMPUR (June 27): The number of new Covid-19 infections in the country for the 25th epidemiology week (ME 25), which began from June 19 to 25, saw a 10.9% increase to 15,739 cases compared with 14,195 cases the week before. Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said, however, the number of deaths showed a 38.1% drop, with 13 cases compared with 21 cases in the previous week. “The number of recovered cases in ME 25 also showed a rise of 33.8%, namely from 10,524 to 14,078 cases,” he said in a statement on Monday (June 27). Dr Noor Hisham said the admission of Covid-19 patients into health facilities (public hospitals and Covid-19 quarantine and treatment centres) per 100,000 population increased by 11% in ME 25 compared to the earlier week. He said the number of Covid-19 patient … [Read more...] about Covid-19: Rise in new infections, drop in fatalities last week, says Health DG

Thai health officials are expected to gather more data in coming weeks as the highly transmissible BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants of Omicron spread in Thailand. There is a new wave of the two Omicron sub-variant infections hitting a number of countries that had, until recently, seen a large drop in their Covid case loads. Germany, Italy, Australia, Taiwan, Brazil, UK, Mexico, the US states of Florida, Texas and New York, Chile and Greece are some of the countries which have seen sudden spikes and rises in hospital admissions. South Africa and Portugal both had sudden spikes of the new sub-variant area and are now in the decline phase. The UK, for example, is now going through what it describes as its third major wave of infections over the past 6 months. An estimated 1.7 million people in the UK were infected in the 7 days leading up to June 18, a 23% rise on the week before and a 43% jump from the previous week. With people out and about for the region’s summer, medical … [Read more...] about Thailand News Today | Police arrested for bribery over Chinese adult films

Even as cases of Covid-19 spike around the U.S. -- with the number of daily reported cases up some 49 percent in the past two weeks, according to Johns Hopkins -- business leaders are asking their employees to return to the office in the fall. Those employees are feeling anxiety. According to The Wall Street Journal , a survey of 300 adults -- conducted before the recent surge in cases -- who worked from home during the pandemic found that a whopping 82 percent of respondents were feeling anxious about returning to the office -- fearing a loss of the autonomy they've enjoyed while working from home. Business leaders are likely to pay the price for requiring their workers to return to the office. How so? The Journal reports on a follow-up survey that found this anxiety "decreases employees' work engagement, while increasing their intentions to quit." These feelings apply for all workers regardless of "gender, income, relationship status, when people will … [Read more...] about 3 Things Business Leaders Must Do to Relieve Return-to-Office Anxiety

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin To say we are in uncharted territory is an understatement. We’ve been through Black Swan events before, but what seems different this time around is the high level of uncertainty that is still present several weeks into the pandemic in the U.S. (months globally). Normally at this juncture, we have a better understanding of what transpired and a clearer path forward. But for retail, the big question on everyone’s mind is, with as much as $20 billion in retail rents due , where do we go from here? I’ve been in this business for many years on both sides of the aisle and often tenants and landlords come to the negotiating table with differing viewpoints. But that mentality must be put aside for the industry to pull through this crisis. At the risk of waxing poetic – now, more than ever, is the time for landlords and retailers to come together if we are to have shopping centers and stores for quarantined-weary consumers to … [Read more...] about $20 Billion In Retail Rents Due: Why Collaboration Is The Only Way Forward